kirinshibori

Yes, he talks very fast indeed and always seems to be entertaining calls for new business. To give you further insight, his main trade is in making sofas, so he actually subcontracts the rest of the carpentry work. Somehow, he's able to still keep his overheads low and thus quotes very reasonable prices. So he pretty much is the supervisor and QCs the work his subcontractor does. You will deal primarily with him for any requests or rectifications. Decline if his subcontractor is an uncle named Ah Song. The chap is a one-man show, very accommodating but requires constant attention. He gets the job done but takes too much effort on our part! That's why I mentioned that you get what you paid for, in my case, I paid low in monetary terms but high in terms of time and attention. If you mentioned that the owner of the Upp Boon Keng flat with the Ash strips kitchen warned you about his experience, he'll take heed and reassign another subcon to you. I think it was a greater nightmare for him than me, lol! Back to the wardrobe... I wasn't too happy with it initially as there were some alignment issues and the sliding doors were too stiff. The sliding doors are still stiff but I'm living with it... Initially wanted to buy my own soft closing tracks from Hettich/Hafele for them to install, but they cost in excess of $200 not including top up for workmanship, so opted to save money and skip that. As my carpentry does not involve laminates, I can only vouch for their woodwork. Exterior wise is fine. Functionally ok, not great. Internally, as wood can be patched up, they patched holes that were incorrectly drilled with wood putty, sanded and re-lacquered the surface instead of changing out the entire piece to keep the cost down. Obviously, you can't do this with internals with PVC... in any case, if you're not fussy about it, it's pretty ok. So bottom line is, he's great if your budget is low and require labour intensive work as he doesn't quibble with manual labour. The job gets done and he has a lot of pride in his work. But engage him with your eyes open.

Bump. My loss is your gain. You can have both items for $350.

Bump.

Hi, thanks. I can't give you an exact figure as my carpentry is charged as a lump sum of $8500. But deducting the cost of my bedroom wardrobe, tv console, altar and 2 bathrooms' carpentry, I'd say it's around $5-6000. Contact of the carpenter is in my sig.

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Both items available.

Did not use in the end as I installed Toto fixtures instead. Brand new in box and box opened to check items only. Grohe Grohtherm 1000 thermostatic mixer for $350, RRP is $500+. Hansgrohe Focus E2 kitchen mixer for $150, not sure about RRP but selling for around $200 when I asked Hafary. Take both for $350. PM me your hp number to discuss further.

Love the lamp shades my mother-in-law made for us! Otsukaresama!

All the cabinets with strips are for general and not food storage. So far so good. No intention to install insect screens. And fingers crossed, no cockroaches observed around my corridor yet...

Cleaning is quite straightforward, my fingers can fit between the strips, so it's either a damp cloth, kitchen paper with mild detergent or my vacuum cleaner with brush head.

It's the Hansgrohe Focus E2. I'm looking at $180.

Hi Ashleymay, I'm glad you liked the house! Yes, it's an island with a shoe cabinet on one side and 6 drawers on the other. Size is 4ft(L)x3ft(W). The line design was specifically for ventilation, cos I hate having things growing on my leather shoes too, haha... Are you requesting pics of the cabinet door or just the island? There's nothing interesting at the side of the island, though towards the dining room side, I have a fold down table and power sockets attached. Go to this website to see more Nathan Yong goodness. I think you'll find their close ups of "line design" cabinets and consoles helpful!

Btw, I love my Grohe Icon handshower... It finally arrived after 4 months... well, I guess better late than never! Which also means I a have an excess Grohe thermostat shower mixer and Hansgrohe kitchen mixer on hand... anybody interested?

Modifying Hinges and Drawer Runners on Ikea Furniture I just finished yet another round of hinge hacking to my Ikea cupboards. So I thought I'd share what I've learnt through research and trial and error... Buy Blum hinges for Stuva cupboards. It's a simple 1-for-1 replacement. I changed the hinges on my kids' Stuva cupboard to Blum Clip tops with Blumotion. Blum Clip top hinges can also be used on PAX and Faktum cupboards but modification is required. Buy the Ikea Integral hinge mounts for $0.30 each from Customer Service. The screw with plug from the mount is required to fit the Blum hinges to the cupboards as the original Ikea screws are too thick for the Blum hinges and normal woodwork screw are too slim for the pre-drilled holes in the Ikea cupboards. As the Ikea soft close hinge cost $5 each, I opted to buy Blum hinges and the Ikea mount (actually made by Blum). It's definitely less than $5 per hinge and I get to save by using a mix of Blumotion and normal hinges. A bit of work is required to unscrew the screws on the mounts to remove the plugs and cutting off part of the plug is required when inserting them to the screw holes that secure the cup of the hinge assembly. That said, it'll be comparatively hassle-free to buy the Ikea Integral hinges for your Ikea furniture since they are authentic Blumotion hinges made by Blum for Ikea. Note that Hettich hinges are not compatible... I used unsprung Blum Clip top hinges on my PAX cupboard in the guest room and mated them to Blum Tip-on accessories to get a push-to-open effect and save on buying handles, lol... As for the Komplement chest of interior drawers, it's using Hettich undamped self-closing runners. I attempted to buy dampers for them, but it seems that the local distributor does not bring them in as the Quadro V6 series are pretty affordable and comes with self-closing and damping. As expected, Ikea's runners are the low-end models from Hettich... in any case, if anyone wants damping function on their Komplement drawers, they can buy the V6 runners and do a 1-to-1 replacement since the offsets and holes are the same. This is the chest of drawers I'm talking about... I'll probably consider changing the runners (cost <$100 for 3 pairs) when I feel rich, haha...

This shelf is cool too... And while we're on the subject of branches...

Since quite a number of us are interested in Tree/Branch shelves, let me post other alternatives I've found online... For the last one, there's even a DIY guide available online. Apparently you can construct it for US$10-20...

Thanks for the suggestions! I'd probably be looking at Billy too. The original plan was to use Lack open shelves, but their load bearing capacity is pretty suspect. I've used all 3, Expedit, Besta and Billy in my previous place, and their durability are in the exact descending order. Billy's are probably more space friendly as their are meant for books and also shallower than the other 2. The ability to add doors to them is pretty neat too. Actually, I was also considering Stuva wall shelves as they look more sturdy than the Billy. But I've reserved a place beside my altar for the tree shelf that I've been lusting after. Too bad the original is too big and probably too expensive! I'd probably need to custom make one, when I have the moolah... unless somebody in the forum knows where to get one locally at a wallet-friendly price!

Thanks for the compliments! It's always nice to hear from you. It's true that I did not beautify my shots... have been posting the recent pictures, warts and all, due to requests for info by fellow forummers, haha... Btw, just thought that these are funny... The rip off that I have of the elegant arc lamp adorning your living room has been literally a pain for me. I just can't get the height and positioning right and kept bumping my head against it! And the simple human garbage bin... well, it has unfortunately become a white elephant, lol... As the simple human bin is inside the cabinet, we're reluctant to throw any organic waste in there for fear of pest infestation and smell; and the bin in the dining room is just so much more convenient for non-organic waste... So, the end result is very token utilization of the most expensive bin in our house. What a joke!

No laminates in the kitchen... The cabinets are made using oak veneer plywood, while the strips are solid ash. They are all hand finished with shellac and lacquer.

Thanks! Good stuff are meant to be shared. Hope your house will turn out much better than mine!